iRobot Roomba Combo J5 Robot Vacuum and Mop

I received this for free in exchange for my honest review. So far I have used the vacuum feature only and have not tested out the mop. I will update my rating once I get to it. As far as this vacuum goes, it is seemingly smarter than my Eufy robot vacuum in a sense that it knows how to avoid obstacles better and it also knows how to get out of areas when it is stuck. The only issue I have so far with this vacuum is that when it did the mapping, it literally skipped out a whole section of my house. I also noticed that it has a tendency to go to the same spots over and over again. I literally watched it make 3 circles around my chair.. but I guess it is good in a way that it cleans better? It also goes into the base with no issues at all. The Eufy robot I had ... MoreI received this for free in exchange for my honest review. So far I have used the vacuum feature only and have not tested out the mop. I will update my rating once I get to it. As far as this vacuum goes, it is seemingly smarter than my Eufy robot vacuum in a sense that it knows how to avoid obstacles better and it also knows how to get out of areas when it is stuck. The only issue I have so far with this vacuum is that when it did the mapping, it literally skipped out a whole section of my house. I also noticed that it has a tendency to go to the same spots over and over again. I literally watched it make 3 circles around my chair.. but I guess it is good in a way that it cleans better? It also goes into the base with no issues at all. The Eufy robot I had constantly had problems. The app itself is pretty neat such that there is a shop for you to buy replacement parts. You can also schedule when you want it to run. I wish there was a button that can be pressed to re-map the area - I couldn’t find it. Additionally, my eufy had different vacuum settings to choose from (such as low, high, max, etc) but this vacuum doesn’t. The app also doesn’t have an option for you to control the robot vacuum whereas my eufy did. In terms of sound, it is quite loud when it works but it is not overly unbearable Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the vacuum but wish the app had more features.

Missing parts

I have owned several robotic vacuum cleaners, over 10+ years, this by far the worst.Bought this to replace my old Neato robot, and boy am I disappointed.Poor app integration, can store only one map at a time. Very limited and basic options to edit the map, if a room is missed at the time of creating the map, there is no way to add / edit the map and you need to start all over again.Rudimentary navigation compared to cheaper robots with liDar navigation. The robot covers some areas a few time (goes around in circles), and some areas not at all.Does not avoid obstacles, violently bangs into furniture and obstacles, makes several attempts to forcibly go through objects, damaging them. Does not have any option to set-up "no go zones" a basic feature available in ... MoreI have owned several robotic vacuum cleaners, over 10+ years, this by far the worst.Bought this to replace my old Neato robot, and boy am I disappointed.Poor app integration, can store only one map at a time. Very limited and basic options to edit the map, if a room is missed at the time of creating the map, there is no way to add / edit the map and you need to start all over again.Rudimentary navigation compared to cheaper robots with liDar navigation. The robot covers some areas a few time (goes around in circles), and some areas not at all.Does not avoid obstacles, violently bangs into furniture and obstacles, makes several attempts to forcibly go through objects, damaging them. Does not have any option to set-up "no go zones" a basic feature available in almost all robots with navigation.Moping is a joke, it is more like lightly wiping the floor with a dirty wet pad, dirt sticks to the pad and is then dragged all over the house.Dirt collection bin is very small, requiring emptying it frequently.Does not come with a Drip tray, though their manual, clearly states it is included.Contacted customer support, was told to send proof of purchase, along with picture of the manual showing parts included. Sent email, no response from customer service.Why the farce of asking me to send proof of purchase in the first place and why show it on the manual.Very poor customer service, takes more than 40 mts to get through and after that no response or resolution.Overpriced, nothing but hipped up brand name, there are much better options available for a lesser price.

[Rewarded Review] A good combo vac and mop with caveats

I have long been a fan of the Roomba. I got the first one back in the day and loved it. Now, several years later with alot of competition, the bar is set pretty high. The iRobot Roomba j5 tries to separate itself from the pack as a combo vacuum bot and mop bot.The build quality seems decent. The basic Roomba formula remains the same across the years I feel. I have had fairly good luck with the various iRobot models in terms of longevity. In terms of functionality, it vacuums well in standard Roomba function. Now because of the two in one function, the bin is pretty small. I had to empty it fairly frequently. Add a shedding dog to the mix and I found that it needed to stop fairly quickly every time. I would find that it would not have finished vacuuming when I came ... MoreI have long been a fan of the Roomba. I got the first one back in the day and loved it. Now, several years later with alot of competition, the bar is set pretty high. The iRobot Roomba j5 tries to separate itself from the pack as a combo vacuum bot and mop bot.The build quality seems decent. The basic Roomba formula remains the same across the years I feel. I have had fairly good luck with the various iRobot models in terms of longevity. In terms of functionality, it vacuums well in standard Roomba function. Now because of the two in one function, the bin is pretty small. I had to empty it fairly frequently. Add a shedding dog to the mix and I found that it needed to stop fairly quickly every time. I would find that it would not have finished vacuuming when I came home due to the need to empty the bin. The mapping function seems to work fairly well and it did a good job avoiding objects from my direct observation. The mop function is decent as well but it does seem to leave some areas uncleaned. It did not feel as thorough of a clean compared to the vacuum.All in all, this is a decent combo robot vacuum and mop for the right people. I feel it is more specialized towards people with a smaller and simple space.

[Rewarded Review] Best Robot Vacuum!

I am delighted to share my review of this Romba Combo j5 Robot Vacuum and Mop in graphite color. To start with, the looks are elegant and are on a similar line as the previous ones.What's in the box1 Roomba Robot Vacuum1 Home Base Charging Station1 Extra High-Efficiency Filter1 Extra side brush1 Roomba Combo Bin1 Mopping Pad1 Drip TrayIt took some time to charge, I think it was ready to use while being charged overnight. My first-floor living area is about 900 sq feet and it took about 90 mins to vacuum the entire space which included some halts. The cleaning bins and drip tray are small but given the size of the Romba, I do not expect it to be bigger than what these are at the moment. So as a result, these needs to take care of frequently.This is ... MoreI am delighted to share my review of this Romba Combo j5 Robot Vacuum and Mop in graphite color. To start with, the looks are elegant and are on a similar line as the previous ones.What's in the box1 Roomba Robot Vacuum1 Home Base Charging Station1 Extra High-Efficiency Filter1 Extra side brush1 Roomba Combo Bin1 Mopping Pad1 Drip TrayIt took some time to charge, I think it was ready to use while being charged overnight. My first-floor living area is about 900 sq feet and it took about 90 mins to vacuum the entire space which included some halts. The cleaning bins and drip tray are small but given the size of the Romba, I do not expect it to be bigger than what these are at the moment. So as a result, these needs to take care of frequently.This is designed to operate both as a vacuum and a mopping solution with a simple switch of a bin. It is easy to switch and just takes a few seconds to change over. So this not only picks up the dirt and debris but can easily clean the footprints or dust while being used as a mop. Its AI feature is quite advanced and can easily identify what needs to be cleaned and what things to avoid.This navigates through items like cords, backpacks, pet toys, pet bowls, kitty litter boxes, clothes, towels, pet waste, socks, shoes, cats, and dogs. As it advertises, it is worry-free cleaning! Not just these, it can stay clear of the pet waste. My kids' school bags and stuff like shoes, and lunch bags are generally all around the living area but this doesn't bump into those. It gently touches the items and bounces back to get back what it does best which is cleaning.Although I do not have a pet it offers to replace it with a new Romba in case it doesn't stay clear of the pet waste.Coming to creating the map zones, once I did the mapping all it did was stay true to it. It cleaned the areas that were in scope and avoided the ones that were not mapped.The app lets me schedule the cleaning based on the room names, or by number of times I need it to vacuum. The impressive thing is its integration with voice operating devices like Alexa. This is a game changer as I do not need to go to the vacuum to turn it on or use the app to initiate the cleaning, a simple voice command is enough.Overall, this is certainly an upgrade on top of earlier models and is quite impressive with the included features.

[Rewarded Review] Excellent vacuum, decent enough robot mop!

This Roombo combo i5 vacuum and mop is a great machine for putting aspects of your home cleaning routine on auto pilot! Whether you would prefer to use the mop for maintenance vacuuming followed by wet clean-up work or have the vacuum component handy to keep the heavier accumulation of dirt down in your carpets, rugs, and all other surfaces, this Roomba has you covered. This model makes more sense for my use case than the package that includes the self-emptying tower with this Combo i5 Roomba given the tower is not compatible with the combo mop attachment for-self emptying. So, I would say that if you are having misgivings on which one to go with, I would say get the self-emptying tower model if you are going to have the vacuum-only component swapped in more than ... MoreThis Roombo combo i5 vacuum and mop is a great machine for putting aspects of your home cleaning routine on auto pilot! Whether you would prefer to use the mop for maintenance vacuuming followed by wet clean-up work or have the vacuum component handy to keep the heavier accumulation of dirt down in your carpets, rugs, and all other surfaces, this Roomba has you covered. This model makes more sense for my use case than the package that includes the self-emptying tower with this Combo i5 Roomba given the tower is not compatible with the combo mop attachment for-self emptying. So, I would say that if you are having misgivings on which one to go with, I would say get the self-emptying tower model if you are going to have the vacuum-only component swapped in more than 75% of the time. Otherwise, it really isn’t that difficult to just empty the collection bin on the Roomba yourself once it gets full!As with other Roombas I have owned in the past, set up on this machine was incredibly easy. Downloading the iRobot app and scanning the quick start QR code on the quick start paperboard guide in the packaging takes you through all the aspects of setting up this little clean up machine step by step from advising you on how to assemble the home base charger and drip tray to getting you started on sending the Roomba out on its first Smart Mapping mission around your home. This task is crucial in order to assure that the Roomba gets a good idea of its surroundings and you as the owner are able to set up and edit the smart map according to areas you might want extra emphasis on cleaning or just want to have the Roomba leave alone completely. This first Smart Map run does take a while and the Roomba will not be cleaning during it; the Roomba will just travel around and map out rooms and obstacles. I left the Roomba in the format it came in out of the box which has it set up for vacuuming while it ran across the whole house mapping including on our carpeted floors. This process for our 1300 Square foot condo took a little over 3 hours including a pause to charge itself up given that it came out of the package with only 20% or so of a battery charge. So be prepared to give this machine ample time for set up, charging, and completing its smart mapping run so that you can enjoy all of its tremendous benefits!The combo bin that allows the Roomba to vacuum and then mop in one go is truly a genius thing that does wonders for our hardwood and linoleum floors. It would be silly to expect this machine to handle the rigors of mopping up heavy mud or other dense, excessively soiled or piled-up messes, but the clean-up of just regular day to day or week to week accumulation is where this Roomba stands out as truly ingenious. In this set up, you just need to be aware to empty to the vacuum collection bin when it gets full (the app notifies you) and also you may need to check the mop pad once and a while and give it a good rinse to make sure it has picked up and packed any larger particles into the mop pad fibers. All of this said, I just love this attachment and the fact that I can just use water as part of the mop routine! I still use a Swiffer for when we have heavier soiling or want to implement a cleaning agent as part of hardwood floor maintenance, but I am enjoying just using water in the Roomba! It fills up easily right from your tap and it also will notify you when the water is getting low. iRobot does sell a very reasonably priced cleaning solution concentration called Braava Jet Hard Floor cleaning solution concentrate in case you are interested in getting some factory compatible cleaning solution for the Roomba!A couple of tips and borderline cons I would mention about this Roomba model. First off, if you are going to use the combo bin with mop function, ensure that your home base charging station and drip tray for the Roomba is set up on a hard floor surface and that it does not have to travel over any carpets to start its mopping function. I noticed that when the mop pad is pretty sodden with water, it can take a long time to dry and the last thing you want to do is have your Roomba drag a wet mop pad over your carpeted floors to reach its mopping destination. Another matter of issue with the charging station and drip tray is it seems to like to move around a lot on my hardwood floor, so I may be getting some extra tacky anti-slide feet from 3M or something to stick onto the bottom so it doesn’t get bullied around so much by the Roomba when it comes on and off of it.The next tip and borderline con I would mention is the smart map set up on this particular Roomba model has been annoying. I have had Roomba’s in the past like the J7+ that were a breeze to set up and appeared to have perfect accuracy on the first try of getting the layout of our home. Additionally, it obeyed the boundaries I set in place and never wavered. This i5 Combo has been rather refractory in this process and I even had to swap in the vacuum bin and send it on a brand-new mapping run in order to get it to have a more accurate picture of my home.A tip before you set it up for its mopping function by swapping in the combo bin is to ensure that you send it on some “dry run” vacuuming missions to each of your designated hard floor surfaces to ensure it actually understands and accurately gages the boundaries. I was horrified when my Roomba was mopping and it suddenly jumped a boundary and started dragging it wet mop pad over my carpet! Yikes. I got that boundary line figured out and haven’t had issues since, but just be aware that there might be some trial and error to this process.Overall, I think that this Roomba i5 Combo delivers exactly what I would expect and more for a product making these promises at this price! It offers the means to maintain a clean home and with a little time spent getting it dialed in right, can save a lot of manual labor hours for maintaining the cleanliness of your floors!

[Rewarded Review] Live- in Maid EVERY DAY!

I LOVE THIS MACHINE! It’s like having a live-in maid cleaning my house EVERY DAY!Set up was very easy following the enclosed instructions as well as the iRobot app.I also like that it creates a digital map of your house, so first it has to go on a few runs without vacuuming just to get the lay of the land, then once it creates the map you can label all the rooms and tell it when you only want it to vacuum certain areas.For starters, this vacuum does a fantastic job at cleaning up dirt, crumbs, hair, etc. I have emptied the dust pan quite a few times and was impressed with the suction power from the Roomba j5. The sensor/camera on the Roomba has been very efficient and doesn't bump into many objects.The App allows the ability to adjust the obstacle detection, ... MoreI LOVE THIS MACHINE! It’s like having a live-in maid cleaning my house EVERY DAY!Set up was very easy following the enclosed instructions as well as the iRobot app.I also like that it creates a digital map of your house, so first it has to go on a few runs without vacuuming just to get the lay of the land, then once it creates the map you can label all the rooms and tell it when you only want it to vacuum certain areas.For starters, this vacuum does a fantastic job at cleaning up dirt, crumbs, hair, etc. I have emptied the dust pan quite a few times and was impressed with the suction power from the Roomba j5. The sensor/camera on the Roomba has been very efficient and doesn't bump into many objects.The App allows the ability to adjust the obstacle detection, vacuums behavior, cleaning schedules, and overall AI detection information (Imprint Smart Mapping) for vacuum accuracy in each room. Overtime, the vacuum will create zones, and you can then label each zone as a room.Overall, the j5 is a great vacuum, but falls a little short for mopping. Yes, swapping the dust bin for the mop bin is easy. However, you will need to clean the mop portion as it has a thin pad and damp fast.I do enjoy the AI of the vacuum mapping my place out and also being able to select specific rooms I do not want the vacuum to go. Thumbs up from me!

[Rewarded Review] Swing and a miss

Providing some context, we are a household of vacuum cleaners. We have a handheld Dyson which we love, a shark robot vacuum, and a Deebot robot vacuum/mop that I was planning to replace with this because the Deebot is older but I’m thinking I may keep the Deebot.Out of the box, I really liked the look of the vacuum as it looked higher end than some of its counterparts. The packaging was minimal but modern, which is great. It came with the vacuum, base, a spare filter, and mop attachments.Setup was pretty simple, there’s a companion app, which makes me roll my eyes a lot for modern electronics but things like this pretty much need one so I certainly won’t dock them for requiring one. The vacuum didn’t come charged so I set it up on the base and let it idle for a ... MoreProviding some context, we are a household of vacuum cleaners. We have a handheld Dyson which we love, a shark robot vacuum, and a Deebot robot vacuum/mop that I was planning to replace with this because the Deebot is older but I’m thinking I may keep the Deebot.Out of the box, I really liked the look of the vacuum as it looked higher end than some of its counterparts. The packaging was minimal but modern, which is great. It came with the vacuum, base, a spare filter, and mop attachments.Setup was pretty simple, there’s a companion app, which makes me roll my eyes a lot for modern electronics but things like this pretty much need one so I certainly won’t dock them for requiring one. The vacuum didn’t come charged so I set it up on the base and let it idle for a while until completion.The area I was testing on was our downstairs which includes a dining area, kitchen, and common room, all in an open space concept, probably around 500sf total, certainly not a massive area by any stretch.Like most robo vacuums, it started off by having me tidy up the area and then went on a map creation tour/cleaning. I noticed immediately that the map they created was very accurate, moreso than the Shark vacuum but less than the Deebot. The vacuuming though, I’d consider… aggressive for better lack of a term. Especially on an opening/maping mission, it just barreled through some of the obstacles I’d setup to see how it’d handle things like the mat that our dog food goes on. It’s maybe an inch high but the machine just rode right over it and knocked into the food/water dish for example. We also have multiple rugs on the pathway and it certainly bent up the edges a bit, much more than the Deebot. I certainly didn’t love that, it seems like it has issues with objects, being gentle, and/or a combination of suction power though I was just using the normal setting.I will note the vacuum did seem to pick up a lot and was very thorough, even maybe moreso than the Deebot but at the cost of running into everything and putting wear on my rugs, I don’t think it’s worthwhile.Checking out the app, there was most of the normal settings like setting up vacuuming schedules, suction power, creating rooms from the map so that you can pick which rooms to clean, etc. All was looking good until… I realized that this is the only vacuum app that doesn’t have “no go” zones. What?! That’s arguably the most important feature for a robot vacuum and I’ve triple checked, yet can’t find an area for establishing no go zones, which is insane.Thus leading to the next hurdle which is mopping… vacuuming without a no go zone is crazy but mopping without one is double crazy. On the app, I selected that I’m now going to attempt to mop, the app prompted up roughly 7 steps with visuals to help me prepare and disassemble after mopping, and then we were off to the races. Tough part though is that with the mopping feature, it basically starts leaving a wet trail the moment it touches ground and leaves the base. I have a rug not far from the base that basically is the size of our room so even if I want to mop the kitchen, the machine has to leave a big wet streak across the rug to get there, there’s no way to stop the mopping liquid from coming out. Lucky for me, there’s about a 1ft clearance along my baseboard for the vacuum to get around the rug and not get it wet yet… THERE’S NO “No-go” SETTING. So I just basically had to stick my foot out and walk alongside the machine until it looped around my rug and got to the kitchen. The rest of the mopping process was fine at best, a little streaky and it just was messy with the fluid leaking from the second you put it into the machine until the job is done and you can quickly move the machine to a sink area where you can drain the rest of the fluid. There has to be a better way to all of this, I’ll likely just go back to normal mopping because the time it takes to load fluid, swap attachments, open the app, change settings, build a barricade or walk alongside the device, then clean the mop feature, drain it, clean up excess leakage, put the vacuum feature, back on, I’d rather just do it all manually myself.Went back to manual vacuuming, setup a schedule only to find that the machine got itself stuck under my coffee table with no proactive alert. I opened the app and it just said the machine was lost, to move it, click the power button, and it’d resume, which it did. I just don’t know what caused it to be stuck as there’s plenty of clearance in either direction. Came back hours later and thought the job was done only to find the vacuum stuck nearby again. Either way, it’s just a bigger headache than anyone would like and worse than anything else I own. Even the time it takes to clean a 500sf room was over an hour, much longer than my other devices. The only thing I can recommend this for would be its suction power and look, but everything else is a rough time. Can’t recommend

[Rewarded Review] The Next Cleaning Robot Evolution

The Roomba Combo j5 is the next evolution in robot vacuum technology. While it definitely looks and feels like a sidegrade or maybe even a step backwards aesthetically compared to the older i or s series vacuums, there’s a few key improvements on the j series that bring Roomba to the next level of home robot vacuum technology.First off, the biggest difference is that the j5 now has a combo vacuum and mop functionality. I bought the Braava jet m6 to pair with my s9+ a few years ago and honestly it was a huge disappointment. Not only did it do just an average job of “mopping”, it struggled mightily with thresholds. The Roomba j5 does a much better job of handling thresholds by placing the mop component on the back of the unit so the wheels pull it and raise up so ... MoreThe Roomba Combo j5 is the next evolution in robot vacuum technology. While it definitely looks and feels like a sidegrade or maybe even a step backwards aesthetically compared to the older i or s series vacuums, there’s a few key improvements on the j series that bring Roomba to the next level of home robot vacuum technology.First off, the biggest difference is that the j5 now has a combo vacuum and mop functionality. I bought the Braava jet m6 to pair with my s9+ a few years ago and honestly it was a huge disappointment. Not only did it do just an average job of “mopping”, it struggled mightily with thresholds. The Roomba j5 does a much better job of handling thresholds by placing the mop component on the back of the unit so the wheels pull it and raise up so the unit doesn’t get stuck on a threshold. There’s also a different combo tank that needs to be used for wet/dry functionality. Overall the mop function works pretty well, but it’s not as good as a dedicated floor mop that you push around obviously.Another major update is that the j5 no longer does the “random” pattern when it cleans, it more reliably cleans in an organized row and grid fashion which I know was a common complaint on previous Roombas. It still got things clean, but I guess people were just put-off by the unpredictability of the pattern in which older Roombas like my s9+ would clean.In that same vein, the j5 uses different technology for collision and object detection. It seems to be much more reliant on its camera, requiring lights to work properly, where older Roombas would just bump into stuff to map out a floor and then remember and go from there. It does seem to negotiate objects and furniture better, and also seems to use some kind of AI for image/collision recognition over time.The iRobot Home app has always been stellar and it’s been updated and still stands out as industry leading. I was able to detect and set-up my j5 quickly, although it failed 2x the default method it was able to use the 3rd “Let’s try another way” and quickly connected using my iPhone 15 Pro Max. After that, it asked to import my existing floor maps and I was off and running with at least a starting layout for the j5.As for the j5 itself, I do wish I got the cleaning/filling base so I don’t have to deal with cleaning the unit myself. I really love the self-emptying base on all the various vacuums I have that have it and also with my s9+. Also, the higher-end j units also have the ability to fully retract the mop head to get them out of the way to transition between hard surfaces and rugs/carpets, so that is something to consider.Lastly, like I mentioned, the unit doesn’t feel as premium as my s9+ but maybe because it’s only the mid-line j5. For someone who wants the best, consider getting the j9+ with emptying base. The cleaning features of these Roombas are great if you run them consistently and clean up big messes as they happen. They’re great if you have kids and pets and help keep your spaces tidy, as long as you maintain them and replace the parts out as needed.

[Rewarded Review] Tradeoffs with Combo Vacuum/Mopping Roomba

The iRobot Roomba Combo i5 is a combination robot vacuum and mop. It allows one device to replace potentially two which seems like a great idea. One issue I've had with using a separate robot vacuum and mop is that vacuuming and mopping about 1500 sqft of space can take a long time to complete on just the vacuuming step alone and as you'd like to mop after the floor is vacuumed, the only good times were either starting later at night or on a day where everyone would be out of the house for most of the morning and afternoon. As a result, mopping did not happen as often.The robot itself looks pretty similar to other Roombas. The finish on this one is a bit different, perhaps to convey it also has the mopping capabilities. Looks, build, and finish-wise, it seems the ... MoreThe iRobot Roomba Combo i5 is a combination robot vacuum and mop. It allows one device to replace potentially two which seems like a great idea. One issue I've had with using a separate robot vacuum and mop is that vacuuming and mopping about 1500 sqft of space can take a long time to complete on just the vacuuming step alone and as you'd like to mop after the floor is vacuumed, the only good times were either starting later at night or on a day where everyone would be out of the house for most of the morning and afternoon. As a result, mopping did not happen as often.The robot itself looks pretty similar to other Roombas. The finish on this one is a bit different, perhaps to convey it also has the mopping capabilities. Looks, build, and finish-wise, it seems the same as other offerings from iRobot - well built and robust. This one comes with the standard flat charging base, a vacuum only bin, and a vacuum and mop bin. Setup is pretty straightforward and after charging it up you're good to go for the first of several mapping runs.Technically, you can have it vacuum/mop and map at the same time but if you want a map so you can isolate specific rooms to be worked on independently, doing mapping runs will help speed things up. For this i5, took 4 runs to get a map. I did three mapping and one vacuum/mop which went surprisingly faster than when I'd done vacuuming with the i3. I'd later figure out that the robot seems to spend less time with the vacuum/mop attachment versus the vacuum-only one which apparently turns on some additional dirt seeking features in addition to being compatible with the base that can vacuum out the robot (you need to manually empty the vacuum/mop bin yourself).This being said I'm still on the bit on the fence on the simultaneously vacuum and mop action. The mop is positioned so that it is in the "back" and so the floor is mopped after the vacuum hits it. But my past experience is that especially when it's been 3-4 days since last vacuum (house with 3 young kids), the Roombas really need their normal deep clean pass to do a good job before you'd want to follow with a mop. This one isn't' any quieter than the i3 so I'm still constrained to only running it when people are well asleep or out of the house. Part of wanting to map is that by splitting my main floor into three rooms, I could setup cleaning that would ensure a particular room could be completed in a given period where the robots were free to roam. So, with the vacuum/mop combo, cleaning the entire first floor in one pass running starting later at night is feasible - no complaints about the noise. The downside is there are areas that don't get that clean due to the mop just dragging debris that didn't get vacuumed up around.The behavior after mapping still needs improvement - the Roomba still wants to do some "exploring" at the boundaries of room if there's no actual barrier where you drew a wall. If you let that happen and it opens up into a larger room, then it will actually just clean that larger room. So I'm still needing to make sure I put up the baby gate (which we already had in place anyway) to help keep the Roomba from wandering into the pantry area. Long term, I think we'll see if this one lasts. On the one hand, I can potentially run it more often so the mop/dirt issue may go away - though it still requires a lot of prep work to ensure legos and other small toys aren't getting vacuumed up or jammed in the rollers. Not being able to have the base auto vacuum it to clean it is also a minor annoyance though the need to refill the tray with water or cleaning solution means there would always be that manual interaction with the Roomba. The app does let you know when things are getting full/low so perhaps those with smaller areas to clean can get by with only needing to interact every 3rd or 4th run.

[Rewarded Review] Vacuum is great but the mop is just okay

I've been using a previous version Roomba 630 for going on 8 years now and have generally been pleased with its capabilities, especially given how long it's been used. This Roomba j5 is a SIGNIFICANT improvement from that model. I would say the greatest change comes to the upgrades to the AI system/learning processing accompanied by the iRobot app. It goes through your home systematically to learn the layout, it uses cameras to use lights and windows to help navigate and map out your home, and it has LEDs to locate and avoid potential obstacles - after it does that the app gives you the option to go through various camera images to teach the vacuum what obstacles to avoid. The app also has settings for cleaning preferences for choosing the number of cleaning passes, ... MoreI've been using a previous version Roomba 630 for going on 8 years now and have generally been pleased with its capabilities, especially given how long it's been used. This Roomba j5 is a SIGNIFICANT improvement from that model. I would say the greatest change comes to the upgrades to the AI system/learning processing accompanied by the iRobot app. It goes through your home systematically to learn the layout, it uses cameras to use lights and windows to help navigate and map out your home, and it has LEDs to locate and avoid potential obstacles - after it does that the app gives you the option to go through various camera images to teach the vacuum what obstacles to avoid. The app also has settings for cleaning preferences for choosing the number of cleaning passes, how to behave when the receptacle is full, and what obstacles to avoid. It's a serious change from where iRobot started out and I love that you can choose how it behaves and learns. Another thing to note is that the Roomba learns over time and cleaning will actually get faster- you'll notice that areas like under dining tables or complicated areas, the machine will bounce around a LOT but after some time, it will learn and figure out a more efficient means to clean that area the next time around. The sound of the vacuum is also reasonably quiet for what it does (at least compared to the older models).The receptacle can be replaced with the mop head, which is generally, a little bit disappointing. The Roomba is clearly designed more for the vacuum component with the mop side being more of a secondary function. The replaceable mop is pretty thin and doesn't do a great job, honestly. After running through a small 600 sqft space, it sort of comes back sopping wet and is more of a hassle than it needs to be. I would not recommend this for the mopping function, specifically.As a vacuum, this machine is FANTASTIC, especially with all the available settings in the app. The mopping capabilities are disappointing and it should be used as a backup option should you be in a bind.